Lubbock French teachers, students play large role in building Cambodian school

Wednesday

Mar 5, 2014 at 4:41 PM

NATALIE GROSS

When Cindy McBrayer and Renèe Holman decided on the slogan "Change for Cambodia," they were referring to more than just pocket change they hoped people would donate to their cause.

By raising money to build a school in the South Asian country devastated by genocide in the 1970s, the two French teachers hoped to make a real difference.

It's a desire they passed on to their students as well and one they finally saw to completion in January.

How it began

On an educational trip to India in July 2009, McBrayer and Holman met a teacher from Pennsylvania who told them he and his students had raised money to build a school in Cambodia.

Both McBrayer and Holman - who have since retired from teaching - grew up in the Vietnam War era and had heard about the devastation in Cambodia. They had also seen the 1984 Academy Award-winning film "The Killing Fields," which brought to life the country's history.

Holman said Pol Pot, leader of the Communist Party in Cambodia in 1975, instituted an extreme form of agrarian socialism when he took office, killing doctors, teachers and other educated citizens who he thought had been influenced by Western culture.

He annihilated 2 million of his own people and sent others to work in camps to grow rice, which he traded with China for guns, Holman said. As a result, most of the country's population is younger than 50 and lacks education.

"Education is crucial," Holman said. It would enable people to work jobs to keep from selling their children for money and their daughters into human trafficking.

Upon hearing of the opportunity to build a school in Cambodia, McBrayer and Holman partnered with American Assistance for Cambodia - now called World Assistance for Cambodia - to build their school.

When school started that year, the French clubs of Monterey and Coronado - where McBrayer and Holman taught - and Lubbock high schools began raising funds to build a school, calling their campaign Change for Cambodia.

"We're very globally minded," McBrayer said. "We wanted our students to have that experience of doing something big for students on the other side of the world."

McBrayer and Holman and their French classes committed to raising $13,000 for the project and did everything they could think of to collect money - from asking for spare change in the cafeteria to selling friendship bracelets and T-shirts and hosting a fundraising concert by a French singer. Students even went door-to-door asking neighbors and strangers alike to donate money to the cause.

"I absolutely loved raising money for Change for Cambodia," Savannah Jackson, one of Holman's former students, said in an email. "I would go door to door and give them my elevator speech as to what the project was, why and how it affected them. ...I'm a very visual person, so in my mind I would see the children that needed help. I could see what kind of world they lived in, how they survived on a daily basis and felt as though I could see their pain. I thought that if we could build a school for them, all their problems would be solved. This was very naive thinking, but it is why I worked so hard to raise money."

Naming the school

Deciding on a name for the school was an important feat that took five months. The teachers wanted a name that would tie all three French clubs together without being partial to a specific school. They also wanted to tie it into Lubbock or West Texas.

McBrayer and Holman had the same French teacher during their years as students at Monterey, and in October 2013, McBrayer thought to name the Cambodian school after her. Michèle Wade taught at Monterey for more than 30 years, McBrayer said, and inspired her, Holman and others to pursue careers in the same field.

McBrayer said half an hour after thinking to name it after their beloved teacher, she got an email from Wade's son, a former classmate, that Wade had died the night before at age 83.

Mike Wade said his mom grew up in Paris and moved to Puerto Rico and then Dallas after her mother married an American soldier she met during World War II. She spoke French and Spanish and taught herself English by reading American magazines.

"She was very gentle," Holman remembers. "She could just hold herself so well. It was very French - very Parisian."McBrayer said her students had a lot of respect for Wade.

"It's flattering when you have a student who becomes a teacher because of your mother," Mike Wade, a radio personality in Dallas, said. "When that student winds up teaching in your mom's room like Cindy did, that's special. But when two former students like Cindy and Renèe, who both became teachers and committed themselves to having a school in Cambodia named after her - that's remarkable. Our family thanks everyone who helped make this a reality."

He said the only thing left is a trip to Cambodia.

The finished product

A trip to Cambodia to see the school is also on McBrayer's and Holman's bucket lists. World Assistance for Cambodia has promised to have a dedication ceremony when they go.

At the time of Michèle Wade's death, the Change for Cambodia fund was lacking $4,000 toward the $13,000 goal, but it didn't take long to come up with the rest.

When McBrayer and Holman spread the word on Facebook that the school would be named in her honor, former students, friends and family members of Michèle Wade donated the rest of the money, and the French clubs raised an additional $1,000 to put toward books for the students.

The Michèle Wade Memorial School in the Kampong Thom Province - about a five-hour drive from the country's capital Phnom Penh - is a lower secondary school and has 341 students and 18 teachers.

Every day the children are in school, their families get a stipend as incentive to let them finish their education, McBrayer said.

"I am so excited to hear that we have finished paying for a new school in Cambodia!" Raven LaFave, who graduated from Coronado last year, said in an email. "I can't believe that all of the penny wars, selling pull-tab bracelets and displaying donation jars actually made it possible for us to build a school. I think that we all take for granted being able to go to school and having some place where we can go to learn, express our ideas and make friends. It's nice to know that we are able to help children get an education clear on the other side of the world. It is shocking though, that there are still schools being destroyed and students being killed in foreign countries, just because they want to learn. I am so glad that I got to be a part of this important project. Makes me appreciate getting to go to my classes more!"

McBrayer recently received pictures of the school through World Assistance for Cambodia and has been proudly showing them off.

And when asked how they feel now that the four-and-a-half year project is complete, McBrayer and Holman said it's surreal.

Seeing their favorite French teacher's name on the sign along with Lubbock ISD French Clubs was a "wow" moment, McBrayer said.

natalie.gross@lubbockonline.com

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